The present invention relates to apparatus for treating the knives in a tobacco cutting machine, particularly in a machine for shredding tobacco leaf laminae. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for grinding the cutting edges of knives in tobacco shredding and analogous tobacco cutting machines.
It is already known to shred tobacco leaf laminae with a rotary holder which supports a plurality of elongated knives having undulate cutting edges. Reference may be had to commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 561,177 filed Dec. 14, 1983 by Uwe Elsner. It is also known to grind the cutting edges of such knives by a grinding wheel having a working surface with a profile which is complementary to the outlines of undulate cutting edges. A drawback of presently known apparatus of the above outlined character is that the grinding operation is unsatisfactory because the cutting edges cannot be brought into vibration-free contact with the grinding tool. Moreover, the bearings for the knife holder and for the grinding wheel are subjected to pronounced wear.